New Zealanders consumed a record amount of cocaine in June 2023, according to wastewater drug testing, as criminal gangs flooded the market. Photo / 123RF
New Zealanders consumed a record amount of cocaine in June 2023, according to wastewater drug testing, as criminal gangs flooded the market. Photo / 123RF
Cocaine has been consumed in record amounts in New Zealand in 2023, according to national drug use data, as overseas cartels and motorcycle gangs continue to flood the market.
The Herald obtained five years of wastewater test results from Crown research institute ESR to measure consumption of illegal drugssince late 2018, which gives the police a useful snapshot of the scale and geographic spread of the problem.
Methamphetamine is still the most popular drug by far, several decades after taking hold in this country. But consumption has decreased slightly from the peak reached during the Covid lockdowns in 2021.
Cocaine, however, has had a noticeable upward trend over the past 18 months.
More than 2.3kg of cocaine was consumed nationwide each week in June 2023 – the highest level ever recorded. It was just 600g per week when testing started in November 2018.
“Some regional towns, where traditionally only methamphetamine was detected, are now consuming cocaine in detectable quantities,” Julia Smith said in response to an Official Information Act request by the Herald.
“It is likely the increase in cocaine consumption, and number of locations where cocaine use is detected in the wastewater, is the result of increased supply into New Zealand which has led to expansion of the cocaine market.”
Central Auckland and Queenstown consumed the most cocaine on a per capita basis, according to Herald analysis, followed by West Auckland, the North Shore and Mount Maunganui in the top five.
Smith noted that while cocaine use in 2022 was higher than in recent years, it was similar to the previous peak levels seen in 2019 before the supply chain of the global cocaine market was disrupted by Covid lockdowns.
But the new record of 2.3kg consumed each week in June 2023 – the most recent data available – confirmed what police and criminal sources consistently told the Herald last year: the drug market was being flooded with cocaine.
The wastewater data was also consistent with the most recent findings of an anonymous survey of 13,000 drug users conducted by Massey University.
The number of people in Auckland who thought cocaine was ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’ to buy was 46 per cent in 2023, according to the New Zealand Drug Trends Survey published in August, up from 29 per cent five years ago.
Similar changes were also seen in Waikato (13 to 36 per cent), Wellington (15 to 27 per cent) and Canterbury (7 to 27 per cent).
Chris Wilkins, a drug policy researcher at Massey University, says the amount of cocaine is still tiny compared to other drugs. Photo / Doug Sherring
Associate Professor Chris Wilkins, who has been researching drug markets for 20 years, was sceptical about the supposed strength of the cocaine market in New Zealand, because the growth was from a small base.
“It’s still tiny. But it’s possible these numbers are the canary in the coal mine, or an early indicator of a change,” Wilkins said.
“There is always generational change. People tend to want to use different drugs than what their older brothers or sisters used, and cocaine is seen as more sophisticated than meth.”
The data was supported by larger quantities of cocaine being caught at the border.
In 2009, Customs stopped just 3kg of the Class-A drug. Since 2017, there have been numerous seizures in excess of 100kg, including a record of 700kg at the Port of Tauranga in March 2022.
Last year, a joint investigation found nearly 4 tonnes of cocaine in the middle of the Pacific Ocean waiting to be picked up.
This noticeable increase in supply has been driven by Mexican and South American cartels, often working in tandem with outlaw motorcycle gangs based in New Zealand with strong international ties, like the Comancheros and Mongols.
Despite the spike in demand for, and supply of, cocaine in recent years, it is clear that methamphetamine is still far more popular in New Zealand.
Meth consumption peaked at more than 20kg each week during September 2021, according to the wastewater testing, when Auckland was plunged back into a strict Covid lockdown.
While meth use dropped significantly towards the end of 2022 and early 2023, weekly consumption rose again to more than 16kg by June 2023.
Jared Savage is an award-winning journalist who covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006, and is the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.
